Building Ecologies: Collective Urban Infrastructures in Houston

Spanish architect Juan José Castellón exhibits a modular installation proposing new models of urban infrastructures and collective spaces for social interaction.

Houston has recently suffered from hurricanes, winter storms, and pandemics. In addition, communities face significant difficulties in having equitable access to healthy food and sustainable consumption of energy and resources. However, in addition to oil and gas, both solar energy and storm water are resources in abundance and therefore an important source of energy to articulate sustainable strategies for the construction of a healthy and balanced built environment for all. Besides, Houston, as a diverse city and a leader in multiple areas of innovation, has the material and intellectual capacities to lead a new paradigm in urban growth at the local and global scale.
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The purpose of the installation Building Ecologies is to propose new models of urban infrastructures and collective spaces for social interaction based on the integration of multiple architectural, technological, and ecological systems. Accordingly, this intervention is the result of a collaborative and interdisciplinary research model at Rice University involving the School of Architecture, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the Shepherd School of Music, as well as the support of the Carbon Hub initiative.

About the artist

Juan José Castellón is an architect (ETSA Barcelona, 2003), M.Arch. in Emergent Technologies & Design (Architectural Association London, 2011) and Doctor of Sciences by the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich, 2017). Currently, he is Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture at RICE University (Houston, USA) and Founding Partner at xmade (Basel, Switzerland / Barcelona, Spain.)

His research is focused on the implementation of contemporary material processes and structural systems in architecture, and on the integral and ecological design of building infrastructures.